Greenheart disappearing --ecologist urges forest management Stabroek News November 9, 1999 If the harvesting of greenheart continues in the same pattern as is currently being implemented the species will become commercially infeasible and the timber industry may have to shift to marketing other species. Dr Hans ter Steege, a forest ecologist, biodiversity, attached to the Tropenbos-Guyana Programme (TGP) noted that greenheart comprised 70 per cent of all the timber produced in Guyana, but said there was no "direct concern" that the species was disappearing. In a recent interview with Stabroek News, Dr ter Steege asserted that records from a study done showed between 15-29 per cent of all existing greenheart had been harvested. The ecologist said TGP was currently conducting an inventory of an area covering 400 square miles from the Bartica-Potaro Road towards the Mazaruni and Essequibo rivers. The first indications from the inventory show that the declining trend has not been reversed, even though the forest as a whole may be considered structurally intact and recovered, and apparently capable of fulfilling most of the forest functions and services. There was an inventory done in 1924 and another in 1964, he said, and when they were compared it was found there was some decrease in the amount of greenheart trees. But Dr ter Steege noted that the perception then of sustainable forest management was different from the current one. Timber species of low and medium density were found to be the most dominant in the area, according to the 1964 inventory. Acknowledging that there are extensive stands of greenheart remaining, Dr ter Steege said: "Historically, greenheart has been overharvested. We have to stop and check the options for the future. What should we do with the resource? Liquidise it? Or should we preserve the species?" TGP said in a statement that the answer as to the way forward had been given frequently in the form of improved policy, specifically the development of the Guyana Forestry Commission's Code of Practice. TGP pointed out, however, that the problem would be to convince customers in the foreign market, who have no intimate knowledge of local policy initiatives. "It is within the capacity of policymakers in Guyana to ensure the survival of greenheart as a species and thus satisfy the main concern [ie conservation] of the overseas customers," TGP stated. It said this would require the vigorous pursuit of already existing plans for national parks and biodiversity conservation zones in forest concessions. Apart from viable populations of greenheart this will ensure the conservation of a large number of endemic and typical species of timber in Guyana. Greenheart has a small range and is commercially utilised, TGP observed. This combination makes the species vulnerable and a likely candidate for attention by conservationists. It occurs on the list of vulnerable species published by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC). It was also included in the 1998 International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) publication The World List of Threatened Trees. But Dr David Hammond, principal forest ecologist, attached to the International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development, has written to the author of the publication, Dr Sara Oldfield, of WCMC, asking that the status of greenheart be re-examined. Dr Hammond argued that greenheart may only fulfil IUCN's threat criterion if estimates of harvesting are higher than expected and the original population size is smaller than expected. He said given this uncertainty a classification of vulnerable would appear premature. A classification of lower risk-conservation dependent would appear more suitable at this stage. "This does not suggest that current logging of greenheart is either efficient or sustainable, but the local dominance of this species across much of its range, combined with a low harvest rate in many exploited areas, does not lend to a great deal of support to the vulnerable classification," Dr Hammond stated. A © page from: Guyana: Land of Six Peoples